A former Green Beret behind a failed Venezuela raid in 2020 lashes out at CIA and FBI | EUROtoday

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A former Green Beret accused of plotting an invasion of Venezuela in 2020 to attempt to overthrow Nicolás Maduro lashed out Friday on the CIA and FBI, claiming they sabotaged his efforts to oust the leftist chief. His legal professionals asserted that he had the Trump administration’s assist for the clandestine mission.

Attorneys for Jordan Goudreau acknowledged in court docket filings for the primary time that the embellished fight veteran had “authority from the very best ranges of the chief department” for the amphibious raid that ended up with several combatants killed and two of his U.S. Special Forces colleagues in a Venezuelan prison.

The filing in Tampa federal court, where Goudreau is facing weapons smuggling charges, coincided with his reappearance Friday on social media in which he claims a skittish U.S. government emboldened Maduro.

The video was published as Maduro was being sworn in for a third term in office on Friday amid rebukes from the United States and others who believe he stole last year’s election.

“I want to congratulate the CIA and FBI on a job well done. Because of your efforts in Venezuela in 2020 to sabotage my executive-branch directed operation Nicolas Maduro is getting sworn in today,” Goudreau, flashing a thumb-up sign, said in a short video on Instagram. “Good job, fellas!”

The CIA and FBI declined to comment.

Goudreau was arrested in Manhattan on federal weapons smuggling charges last year, in connection to the bizarre plot.

Two days before the planned incursion, the AP published an investigation detailing Goudreau’s efforts to raise funds for the raid from the Trump administration, Venezuela’s opposition and wealthy Americans looking to invest in Venezuela’s oil industry — should Maduro be removed.

The AP investigation found no evidence that the U.S. approved the invasion and U.S. officials have denied having any role in it.

The ragtag group of Venezuelan army deserters whom Goudreau allegedly helped arm and train in neighboring Colombia went ahead with the raid, only to be scooped up by Venezuela’s security forces, which had already infiltrated the group. Several were killed and two of Goudreau’s former Green Beret colleagues spent years in Venezuela’s prisons until a prisoner swap last year.

The raid, dubbed “Operation Gideon,” ended up delivering a PR coup for Maduro, who has long accused the U.S. of covert actions to destabilize his rule, and became widely ridiculed as the “Bay of Piglets,” in reference to the 1961 Cuban fiasco.

Goudreau’s attorneys allege he was recruited for “Operation Gideon” by Keith Schiller, a longtime personal bodyguard to President-elect Donald Trump. They said Schiller, who was not employed by the U.S. government at the time, took him to a meeting with several aides of opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

Miami-based attorney Marissel Descalzo said in her filing that the aides were looking for someone to assist “Guaidó with efforts to take away President Maduro.”

“Mr. Goudreau was advised that the operation was sanctioned and approved by the executive branch, particularly Vice President Mike Pence,” Descalzo wrote.

The then-Trump administration had made no secret of its want to see Maduro gone and Goudreau’s one-man safety agency, Florida-based Silvercorp USA, had signed a contract with Guaidó to discover a mission to grab Maduro, who had a $15 million bounty on his head on drug trafficking expenses within the U.S.

The Biden administration on Friday raised the reward to $25 million to protest Maduro’s clinging to energy.

Goudreau additionally claims he met in Washington with two U.S. officers, one in every of whom briefly labored in Pence’s workplace. The former vp has denied any data of the plot and known as Goudreau’s claims an entire fabrication.

Guaidó’s Miami-based aides broke off all communications with Goudreau a number of months earlier than the raid, saying they consider he was mentally unstable and had no assist from the U.S. authorities for the covert operation.

The Trump administration disavowed all hyperlinks to the plot however Goudreau seems to carry out hope he’ll get a reprieve as soon as the president-elect returns to workplace later this month.

In an earlier video put up this week, Goudreau likened his authorized woes to these confronted by defendants charged with invading the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election outcomes.

“I can’t wait for Trump to get into office and absolutely annihilate the Department of Justice,” he says in that video.

Filmmaker Jen Gatien, who made a documentary about Goudreau known as “Men at War,” put up her $2 million Manhattan loft as bond to safe Goudreau’s launch as he prepares for trial set to start in April. As situations for his launch, he’s not allowed to go away the state of Florida, the place he’s residing on the dwelling of a fellow vet.

Prosecutors mentioned they plan to current DNA proof at Goudreau’s trial, displaying he dealt with a number of the 60 weapons he allegedly smuggled from Florida to Colombia as a part of the plot towards Maduro.

Prosecutors allege Goudreau additionally spent $90,000 on a yacht he used to move ammunition, physique armor plates and magazines for AR-15 rifles.

The yacht, bought in Miami, sank within the Caribbean Sea. Goudreau and an unnamed affiliate had been rescued by a tanker passing close by.